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[FM11] Andrew's "Where the hell am I" Euro tour

Well after a few failed attempts at some journeymen careers, I have decided to start a game which I haven't tried before, it is a journeyman, but with leagues that are all new to me for Football Manager 2011. They are all fairly low quality nations, league-wise, so any job I get will be a huge task to achieve much outside of the country itself.

I'm hoping this career will really show how off the DLR.

I am starting off unemployed at the start and see what team I end up with. I will be starting in January 2010, Irish League season, so hopefully I can get an Irish team to start off with.

So they are in the First Division, wasn't expecting anything higher anyway, and the squad is semi-decent to say the best. I will need a couple key signings and I will also need new staff, but after a quick look at them just there, they're all on contracts until 2013-15 so it will cost way to much even for mutual terminations.

This will be a tough first season I imagine, my prediction is to finish 9th out of 12, so there isn't too much expected of my team, hopefully I can change that though and get a top half finish in the first season then try push for promotion.

I have organised 4 friendlies before the season starts, all at home to Wigan, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland. I had to pay each 3k, but I have been told I will get an estimated 20k for each game, this would really boost the clubs finances seeing as I started off with a balance of just 15k.

Wish me luck, this will hopefully be interesting as it's the first time I've done any of these leagues in FM 2011

Thanks for the comments guys Unfortunately I forgot how **** Irish football really is haha. It's such a pain getting through it, but I will battle on, halfway through season 1 at the moment and doing................ crap It's gonna be a long auld slog

Nooooooooooo, I have failed!! Sacked after 26 games in charge. To be fair I have been sitting at the foot of the table for the last 2 or 3 games and have been poor. I have a few injuries to key players but the team has been playing poorly. I can't even begin to express how annoyed I am at being fired so early on, vicous Athlone Town FC :P Well time to go and search for a new job, sorry to you guys who have been reading already and maybe expected me to do something decent with Athlone Town but sure here's a little twist for the start of my career, I will bounce back from this and become stronger, make my tactics better I suppose and just try and get a team I can win something with.

Well a new job has come around for me almost a year after I was fired. Currently in July 2011 and I have been approached by Waterford United, which I duly accepted as I really wanted to keep on with an Irish team for the moment so I am delighted I have been presented with this oppurtunity.

The team are currently lying 8th in the table and seem to be doing well enough, hopefully I will be able to be the right man to try and guide them to the promotion play-off places, being just 4 points off the cut-off for the play-offs and still with 20 games to go.

The club is spending all of the available wages so I may try and get rid of one or two players and try spice things up a bit but overall the squad isn't too bad, and the club is in a fairly safe financial position with 75k in the bank. I think I may also organise some friendlies against some of the English/Scottish teams to garner some extra income.

Hopefully I can use my year off studying new tactics positively and I'm sure Waterford United hope I can bring some success to them

Yeah was a handy enough job to be offered, better than my first one with Athlone Town anyway. I just want to finish the season now so I can go through the team and make it my own. Hopefully with some players good enough for the next division up.

Well the season has been completed, and it was so close to being a dream half of a season for me. I finished 4th in the league, 1 place outside the promotion play-off places and only outside due to an inferior goal difference of 3 so very close, but it gives me confidence that I can go on and improve on it for next season and hopefully make a real push for promotion.

Very, but to be fair I wasn't really in it until the teams above me went AWOL on the last 2 or 3 games and let me get that close, but I knew there would always be one that would get the point needed to keep me out. All in all not a bad first half a season with them.

The means a lot to me though Nobby, it's just "The" :P to be honest I had "The" in the title thread and wasn't sure on a name so then I went and posted the thread and forgot to add to the title, I can change it but I am enjoying it at the moment :P

Unlucky on the start with Athlone town and the sacking. They're a load of rubbish in the first season, although not as bad as Salthilll! Wateford United are a much better team. In fact they were a bit of a rival team for my Wexford side in the first few seasons, after inflicting my most humiliating defeat - a 5-2 loss in the cup. You should definitely be able to build upon their team for a promotion bid next season. On a side note, is Mark Farren scoring ridiculous amount of goals on your game for Derry City?

Yeah they weren't great, but I did get quite unlucky with countless matches being lost even though I had more clear cut chances. Farren has 20 in 27 and 19 in 32 for the last two seasons and he has 3 in 9 so far this season. He a monster in your game?

Farren has been top scorer every season, 32 in 27 in the first season, with 17 in 30 being his lowest scoring season. He is an absolute monster, and I still can't work out why he's scoring so many. Sure he has good finishing and penalty taking but he isn't that good. I'm not letting the fact that he just scored a brace against me bias my opinion obviously. Oh and he was top scorer with 27 goals this season as well. Saying he is a thorn in my side is an understatement.

Well, the ups and downs of football management. I have more bad news to bring to you my friends, the kind people of Waterford United have decided it would be best not to renew my contract, which I think is very unfair on me. Ok, the league was a bit of a disaster finishing 12 points from play-off places, which was mainly due to switching tactics throughout the season and finding the right one too late in the season. But my reasons for thinking it was unfair is that I had a squad there capable of challenging for the title and had brought in some youths from the Under 20's into the squad and they were all developing well, all pushing for starting places. Then I had a super performance in the cup which saw me lose 1-0 to Shamrock Rovers in a replay of the final, drew 2-2 in the original final. This great cup run led to me to qualifying for Europe for next season, Euro Cup, and what do they do to me? Don't offer me a new contract, and wouldn't listen to me when I requested a new one saying I still had to prove myself, which was difficult seeing as I had no games left!! I also brought their bank balance up to 750k which is a hell of a lot of money for an Irish team, especially after they only had 75k when I took over.

After 6 months contemplating his next move, Irish manager Andrew O'Rourke has decided to take his next step in management at Belgian 3rd Division club, KSK Hasselt.

Well I've never managed an amateur club before so this should be an interesting challenge, hopefully I can make a career out of this save because I don't seem to be doing to well and this is a step back for me really. But I'll give it a go anyway and try my hardest as I always do

Well it was a successful enough season, finished off quite strongly which allowed me finish so high in the table, just one place off the top, but I still finished 18 points from the place ahead of me so that's going to be a huge gap to try and close for next season. Being an amateur club I find it hard to keep hold of my best players, with many gone out in the close season. But with that I can also bring in some good players for nothing as well. And my scouts have quite good judging potential so they are usually spot on with the quality of players I scout.

Yeah they did well not to lose, will still be a tough auld catch up though seeing as my team isn't the strongest. I'm playing a 4-1-2-3 with a DM 2 CM's and 3 ST's but I may revert to a 4-1-2-2-1 with wingers for the tough away games, might help me keep the defence a bit tighter. Although it does mean I will now have to go out and sign some wingers.

Just got knocked out of the cup by a team in the division higher, could have been a different story. But won my first league game 4-0 so hopefully that's a sign of things to come.

I keep changing my tactics for the wrong games :P When I change to the wingers and concede 2 then I change to the 4-3-3 and score 1 but always too late, and vice versa haha. Oh the fun of tactics. Still though, some nice results so far this season and I'm getting closer to the promotion play-off places.

5th is a good finish with an amateur team.
Are you planning to take them to semi-pro status/promotion etc, or moving on to a better club asap?

yeah the plan is to take them up at least one division anyway, try and get some stability as a semi-pro club and maybe push for professional, but it is a journeyman save so who knows where I may end up :P. Hopefully I can have some success with Hasselt first anyway, then see where I go.

Originally Posted by AK22

Good luck in Belgium. Amateur clubs are quite a challeng, at least you've got 300 season ticket holders though, and a decent sized stadium. That's a lot of positives for an amateur side!

Not too keen on the green kits tbh. Looks like something a jockey would wear!

Yeah they have a decent bit of cash, I just keep getting about 25k for my good players, so if I could make it to semi-pro status there is cash there for some contracts and then that would help me keep the better players, which is proving very difficult seeing as I am playing well.

Just secured a play-off place due the 3 period system they have. I topped the table in the 2nd period so that's a huge weight off my shoulders for the rest of the season to have that guaranteed, but it won't stop me from pushing for the top spot as I don't like play-offs, nerves can't handle it :P

Well, another close call but couldn't push all the way to a play-off place unfortunately. It was always going to be a tough task trying to get into promotion places and I came close on securing a place through the period system but alas nothing come of it and I am left to have another go in the 3rd division.

Well, well, well, would you look at who just got promoted I ended up finishing 2nd in the league, an agonising one point from the top of the table, but I got promoted through the play-offs, which I hate because they are too nerve wrecking for my liking :P But we made it through anyway and can now look forward to being in the Second Division and also look forward to being able to sign people on part-time contracts due to us becoming semi-professional, which is a huge boost for the club as we can finally tie down our better players. And hopefully these better will bring their friends, sure who wouldn't want to play under the Third Division B Manager of the Season .

It will be a tough ask to stay up in the Second Division but hopefully I can give it a good go, it would be massively disappointing if I ended up going straight back down, it will be a very important season for me and for the club itself.

Congrats on the promotion! And yes, going semi-pro is helpful, you will enjoy the continuity. You'll also get to enjoy demands for higher wages from players who aren't worth them.

Thanks, yeh I have already enjoyed signing some quality players on proper contracts and have also told a few where the door was when they were looking for ridiculous money, especially a couple of staff looking for €1600 a week haha

Thanks, yeh I have already enjoyed signing some quality players on proper contracts and have also told a few where the door was when they were looking for ridiculous money, especially a couple of staff looking for €1600 a week haha

I think relegation is a serious possibility this season not going well for me at all

I've been switching between the 4-3-3 and a 4-5-1 formation and neither seem to be working for me, even though the team is able to play with both. Might switch to a flat 4-4-2 and try that way, difficult decisions to be made because I'm not sure with 14 games to go changing to a new formation is the right thing to do.

Bad news guys, relegation happened, it happened hard . I just for the life of me could not get a result, which was shown big time when I lost 10 games in a row, yes 10! Although I finished bottom of the table, I did think I was a little unlucky, while I may not have been able to stay up I could have made more of a challenge to try and stay up in my own opinion anyway. My tactics were't working in the Second Division and I'm down to the Division 3 A, I was in B before I was promoted so hopefully the teams are easier in this league :P.

Here's a look at the league table, it doesn't make for good reading believe me :P.

The Belgian Cup was again a little bit disappointing as I would like to be able to have a decent run in the future, maybe 6th round.

Alas, my stay in the Second Division was not to be and hopefully I can go and stay as a semi-pro club because if I don't my whole team will be gone, along with my staff who have proved to be quite useful for me, especially my assistant manager and scouts. Anyway, if I can keep my usual starting 11 from this season I should be able to give promotion another push in the Third Division. Wish me luck, again .

So close yet so far this season guys. I ended up finishing 2nd in the league, down to having 1 less goal difference It was quite sickening as I ruled the league for the best part of the season and then started to fall off a bit. I was never really hit with any bad injuries or anything like that, the team just didn't play as well as they could have for a few games. I do believe that my change of formation helped me a lot and keeping most of players was also a massive boost but unfortunately I couldn't make that extra little step.

Belgian Cup: Well I did hope for a good run in the cup and to be fair the players did themselves proud, only losing to a Pro-League club, that can't be looked down upon.

So back in the 3rd Division again, this season will be my last at Hasselt if I don't get promoted I'd imagine, it's starting to get frustrating not getting anywhere so it's now or never for myself and the small Belgian club. Although, I say that now, I may be tempted to have another pop at it if I fail again :P. Anyway, I'm aiming for promotion this season, hopefully by winning the league.

Key Players:

Tim Vleminckx
Solid right back and played 33/38 league games for me. Always gave a good performance and is very reliable.

Laurent Clerbois
Well, what can I say about this guy? He scored 14 goals in 31 league games for me, and for a defender that's unreal. He will certainly remain at the club even if I get promoted next season. Big player.

Ekow Diallo
Good Ghanian midfielder and chipped in with 4 goals and 7 assists. Hopefully he can improve on that in the coming season.

Choco
Solid attacking midfielder and I can always rely on him to play well. He got 2 goals and 15 assists in the league so he was massive for my attacking movements.

Well guys I'm determined to get a few more of you interested in this career so I'm gonna be posting up more small little updates. A couple big results here and there etc.

That's the way my pre-season friendlies went anyway, nice to be unbeaten with a couple big teams beaten/drawn with such as FC Brussels and Genk.

Here's my transfer dealings:

All the players I brought in are either 20 years or younger. The scout reports I received from them all said that they were good signings for the league and all have potential to be better so I said I'd take them on, and considering that I have to have at least 2 players under the age of 21 in my squad for the league, at least I know that whoever I have can step up to the mark.

Pretty much everyone going out was due to contract expiry and I just didn't need/want. Only sold one for cash and was trying to sell one more but he couldn't agree terms with any other club.

Ah you've moved away from Ireland. For shame :P. It seems like the team has the ability to play in the 2nd league, so hopefully you'll be able to get promoted again and stay up this time

Yeh I wasn't able to hack it :P But i do intend on going back. Yeh they should be good enough, losing 10 games in a row certainly didn't do me any favours :P I would like to get Hasselt in to the Pro-League but not sure how long I can stay with them before wanting to move on

Unfortunately no extra cash was injected to the club but I should be ok, so the takeover had no effect on the club as I wasn't even looking at buying anyone while I had my transfer embargo forced upon me.

With some better news, I've secured a play-off place which is always a plus, takes that extra little bit of pressure off me. Although the aim is to still go and try to win the league, don't like play-offs.

And now to go even better than the play-offs, check out this result against Standard Liege, yes the ones who have appeared in Europe in recent seasons and have been in the top 3 places in the league in each of the last 8 seasons, winning it once.

Ouch, poor Standard.
And Defour still plays for them, I see. He should have made his big move abroad when he had the chance, heheh.

Ah they deserved to be beaten by the giant killers That's now Hasselts nickname because of this one result haha. Hopefully he sticks around in Belgium and I can snap him as soon as I get into the Pro-League.

It's been done I am back in the Second Division 2 seasons after finishing bottom in it. The league table finished up ok for myself, in terms of trying to win it, finishing 3rd, just 2 points from the eventual winners Tienen. I was happy with my overall performance, and the team put in a very good effort, just win away from automatic promotion. But the play-offs came along for me again and this time they worked out kindly for me, have a look here. I won 5-2 on aggregate in the play-off final so it was nice and convincing in the end, although when it finished 2-2 in the first leg I was a little worried.

Belgian Cup: I don't think I am the only one surprised with how well I did in the Belgian Cup, going all the way to final. I beat some very big teams on the way and in the end lost out to a much superior side, but massively encouraging by my team. Genk Final

Success, I stayed up I ended up finishing just 4 points away from the relegation play-off place so I was lucky enough I suppose, but I was always confident I would have just enough to do it. Being knocked out so early on in the cup I think may have helped my league form as I had more time in between games so my key players could rest. I'm quite happy with what we achieved this season and I hope I can build on it and try move up the table next season, I would love a mid-table finish then maybe push for promotion the season after. But that is a lot of if's and but's and I need to concentrate and make sure I can keep out of the relegation zone this season. Could be make or break for me now.

Well, I finished a place higher in 13th but to be honest I haven't felt right at the club the past 2 seasons so I decided it would be time to move on and I have decided to resign from my position. The board were happy with what I achieved with them and hopefully they can go on to bigger and better things.

A pair of solid seasons establishing Hasselt in the Second Division. Might be the right time to move on indeed. Hope you land somewhere decent.

Also interesting to see: Boussu must have had a rather irregular season there, to say the least, finishing 15th yet acquiring a promotion playoff spot. I wonder what would have happened if they finished one spot lower.

Well according to reports he's back home in Ireland declaring interest in all the jobs in the country

Originally Posted by CoachFlu

A pair of solid seasons establishing Hasselt in the Second Division. Might be the right time to move on indeed. Hope you land somewhere decent.

Also interesting to see: Boussu must have had a rather irregular season there, to say the least, finishing 15th yet acquiring a promotion playoff spot. I wonder what would have happened if they finished one spot lower.

Yeah I noticed that myself, would be very interesting to see if they would have gone to both play-offs :P maybe get relegated then promoted in the same weekend haha

Well done in Belgium, you did well with Hasselt after the somewhat disappointing earlier seasons :P. I would suggest bypassing Ireland entirely and trying to get the biggest job you can find. Unless you're in for the long haul there isn't that much point managing there because of how poor the league is, although if you get the Bohemians or Shamrock Rovers job I suppose it might be worth it.

I was happy getting this job, although the club looks destined for relegation

Here's the current league table:
So it isn't looking too promising for me at the moment, with the team none too happy about being down there and some tough final fixtures. The games in hand the teams around me have isn't gonna help either.

Well, I always knew it would be hard to keep the team up but hopefully down in the Division 1 I can bring the team together and get straight back up to the Premier Division. Although, things have changed a lot since I was last in Ireland as some of the better teams have fallen from grace and some of the "smaller clubs" are up in the Prem.

They weren't too bad, games against the Premiership teams were just for some extra cash and then 2 easy ones before the season started to get the morale up for my squad. Hopefully they set me up nicely for the season.

And then my transfers:

Nothing really major here, Mukeba was a definite buy, had no decent right back and this guy got a lovely report from my scout so paid the cash for him. Anyone who left had no chance at being in the 1st team squad.

So it wasn't the greatest of starts, certainly not by the high standards I set myself. The 3 losses were particularly disappointing as I felt I could win each of them, which would have placed me in a much better league position, but how and ever, we shall battle on .

Originally Posted by Tony Hawker

Good results in the friendlies, Good luck getting Drogheda back up to the Premier Division

Hopefully this post brings you the luck to the season that you gave me!

So Spain won it in the end for the 1st time since 2010 and did so by only scoring 8 goals in the whole competition.. The big surprise was Ukraine going all the way to the final and only losing by a goal. I'm sure they're massively proud of that run anyway. Ireland didn't make it to the finals and either did England.

Not the greatest run of results in my career. The little unbeaten run of 6 games was nice but ruined by the losses either side. The win against UCD was sweet and at least I have a cup final to look forward to this season

Guys, I'm afraid my save file has become corrupt, the 2 of them Football Manager is nearly finished re-installing now so hopefully I can start again and get back into it, I was doing so well for me as well, but these things happen, hopefully I can use the 12 years experience in my next game. Look out for my new thread soon